An Apparatus For Investigating Thermal Distortion In Bonded Sands

In order to accomplish near-net shapes it is necessary to control the thermal distortion suffered by molds and cores, an issue that has not been studied that much in the field. The utilization of the developed device for investigating thermal distortion in chemically bonded sands is presented. The device is capable of placing variable loads on sand-binder samples at metal pouring temperatures. The testing is done without combustible gases. The device, developed at Western Michigan University, has undergone several design modifications that improve ease of use and safety. The basic operation of the device is discussed, and sample distortion curves from performed tests are presented and discussed. The results obtained so far indicate that this apparatus is a useful tool to generate comparative curves that can be utilized during initial selection of sand-binder materials.